CERNAY-LA-VILLE: G7 allies on Friday urged a stop to attacks against civilians in the Middle East war, after a foreign ministers’ meeting in France attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio almost one month into the US-Israeli assault against Iran.
Having skipped the first day of the meeting at the historic monastery turned luxury hotel complex outside Paris, Rubio had a full day of talks with counterparts from leading industrialised democracies at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey outside Paris.
A final communique on the war in the Middle East called for “an immediate cessation of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
“There can be no justification for the deliberate targeting of civilians in situations of armed conflict as well as attacks on diplomatic facilities,” it added.
US President Donald Trump had threatened to strike Iranian energy facilities, but subsequently rowed back that warning to give Tehran more time for talks he said were taking place.
This was Rubio’s first trip abroad since the United States and Israel launched the war with air strikes on February 28 that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Before leaving France, he told reporters the US expected to finish Iran operations in the “next couple of weeks”.
He said Iran had not yet responded to a plan to end the war.
But “we’ve had an exchange of messages and indications from the Iranian system — whatever’s left of it — about a willingness to talk about certain things”.
The G7 meeting was dominated by uncertainty over the current US strategy in the Middle East conflict.
“The Iranian regime would be well advised to enter into serious negotiations with the United States now,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said after the meeting.
“There are initial indications that such talks should be taking place,” he added, without elaborating.
Wadephul said the international community needed to collaborate even more closely now it was dealing with two wars in which Russia and Iran were cooperating — including the conflict sparked by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“We need to strengthen our unity,” he told reporters.
The UK’s foreign minister Yvette Cooper urged a “swift resolution to this conflict that restores regional stability”.
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